Main cryptocurrency information aggregator CoinGecko and crypto funding agency 21Shares have joined forces to launch a world normal for classifying numerous crypto asset.
On Feb. 8, CoinGecko and 21Shares launched The World Crypto Classification Commonplace report, proposing a uniform technique to categorize crypto property. The hassle goals to assist traders and regulators higher perceive the specifics of every asset class in crypto, together with potential failures like these seen by the trade in 2022.
“Since Bitcoin’s inception round 13 years in the past, 1000’s of distinctive crypto property and protocols have emerged, every with distinctive traits and totally different worth propositions,” Carlos Gonzalez, analysis analyst at 21Shares’ guardian agency 21.co, informed Cointelegraph, including:
“In contrast to conventional monetary property, crypto property can fluctuate dramatically in nature, each because it pertains to the asset itself and the protocol behind it.”
On the time of writing, there are greater than 12,000 numerous crypto property listed on CoinGecko’s web site, with every coin having its distinctive traits and options. CoinGecko and 21Shares’ classification normal relies on three categorization ranges, differentiating these 1000’s of property by stack, market sectors, industries and taxonomy.
The primary degree, dubbed “crypto stack,” breaks down crypto property into lessons like cryptocurrencies, sensible contract platforms, centralized functions, decentralized functions, interoperable blockchains and others. The methodology solely refers to networks or protocols within the first two ranges, not the underlying token.

The second degree, referred to as “market mapping by sectors and industries,” additional divides cryptocurrencies by segments like infrastructure, metaverse and decentralized finance (DeFi), in addition to teams like cost platform, lending, developer tooling and others. As some protocols may match into a number of industries, the methodology makes an attempt to put the property in probably the most related class in such instances.
The third degree, “taxonomy of crypto property,” categorised crypto property in accordance with associated asset “superclass” primarily based on the cryptocurrency taxonomy system proposed by crypto analyst Chris Burniske in 2019. Burniske’s system follows Robert Greer’s 1997 paper, “What’s an Asset Class Anyway?” categorizing crypto property throughout their superclasses like capital property, consumable or transformable property and retailer of worth property.
Among the examples within the retailer of worth asset class embrace Bitcoin (BTC), Monero (XMR), Zcash (ZEC) and Dogecoin (DOGE). Any such crypto asset “can’t be consumed; nor can it generate revenue. Nonetheless, it has worth; it’s a retailer of worth asset,” the proposed classification normal reads.
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CoinGecko and 21Shares’ effort to carry a world crypto classification normal is one in every of many world efforts to categorize cryptocurrencies. On Feb. 3, the Division of the Treasury in Australia launched a session paper on “token mapping,” aiming to have its personal taxonomy of crypto property. Beforehand, Belgium’s Monetary Companies and Markets Authority was additionally searching for suggestions on its classification of crypto property as securities, funding devices or monetary devices in July 2022.
“Whereas the classification of digital property is kind of commonplace, many classification efforts are one-dimensional and confuse conventional traders by mixing crypto property — the investable tokens — instantly with the protocols behind them,” Gonzalez stated.
The exec additionally expressed confidence that 21Shares’ collaboration with CoinGecko — a significant impartial crypto information web site — will permit the newly proposed normal to attraction to each retail and institutional traders, in addition to policymakers internationally.